Sharad Pawar's Dalit-OBC outreach is a concern for Shiv Sena & Congress

The NCP is perceived as a Maratha-dominated party, but it is trying to form a social coalition, also comprising Dalits and OBCs

Bhakri firawli naahi tar karapte — the bhakri (unleavened bread of jowar or bajra flour) will burn if you do not flip it while cooking. This saying stressing the inevitable need for a change to avoid political stagnation is often attributed to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar. Living up to this dictum, the NCP — the fulcrum of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra — is looking to expand its socio-political footprint.

Though communities do not vote as monolithic blocs, the NCP is perceived as a Maratha-dominated party. Hence, Pawar’s overtures to sections like Dalits, especially Buddhist Dalits, who form the nucleus of the state’s Ambedkarite movement, and other backward classes, reveal the NCP may be birthing a new social coalition, leading to unease within its allies Shiv Sena and Congress.

Pawar’s outreach to the restive Dalits over the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the Bhima-Koregaon violence and a fresh set of pan-caste nominees to the legislative council from the Governor’s quota suggest the NCP is cultivating an auxiliary constituency and also trying to expand beyond its traditional areas of influence in western Maharashtra.

The NCP has suggested the name of Ambedkarite-singer Anand Shinde, who is known for his Bhim Geets and enjoys massive popularity among Dalits. The songs composed around Ambedkar form a significant element of Dalit counterculture. It has also chosen dissident Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister Eknath Khadse, who has a strong base among OBCs in north Maharashtra, former MP Raju Shetti, who was once the NCP’s bete noir as leader of sugarcane farmers, and Yashpal Bhinge, who belongs to the OBC Dhangar (shepherd) caste. Though Shetti’s co-option by the NCP may upset his cadre, his agriculturist Jain community has sizeable numbers in parts of western Maharashtra.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Bhinge catalysed the defeat of former CM Ashok Chavan from Nanded as a candidate of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). The Dhangars are estimated to be the second-largest social group, after the dominant Maratha (Kshatriya)-Kunbi (peasant) caste cluster, but lacking adequate political representation. 

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who has a bristling relationship with the MVA regime, is yet to approve these names.

A Congress leader pointed at how the NCP was luring leaders of the VBA, which in an alliance with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), was blamed for the defeat of the Congress-NCP in eight Lok Sabha seats.

Upping the ante after the 2018 anti-Dalit violence at Bhima-Koregaon, the VBA had cornered 4.1 million votes, largely those of Dalits and smaller OBCs. The VBA’s subsequent meltdown and the splintered Republican Party of India (RPI) may help the NCP make inroads within these sections, especially Buddhist Dalits, who are uneasy with the rise of political Hindutva. 

While Dalits form around 14 per cent of Maharashtra’s population, the Buddhist Dalits (erstwhile Mahars who embraced Buddhism with Ambedkar in 1956) are the largest social grouping (8 per cent) in this category. “The NCP’s social expansion poses a threat to us as it is aggressively wooing our core voters,” said a senior Congress leader. He added while the Congress was hobbled by the drift in its national leadership, the NCP was nimble on its feet in luring Shinde, despite his initial overtures to the Congress. 

NCP leaders point out after the BJP-Shiv Sena’s sweep in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress had given up on its chances in the Assembly elections.  But, Pawar, who was facing massive attrition from his ranks, led a spirited fightback during the Assembly campaign, which also benefited ally Congress.

Maharashtra minister and NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Pawar had always taken along diverse social sections. This was evident from his decisions like renaming the Marathwada University after Ambedkar (1978), alliance with Ramdas Athavale (now with the BJP), and mentoring a fresh generation of OBC leaders like Sunil Tatkare and Dhananjay Munde.

But this social engineering is causing rumblings within the NCP. “Promotions to fresh inductees may lead to a pushback from loyalists,” opined Pravin Gaikwad of the Maratha group Sambhaji Brigade, who is close to Pawar.

As OBC leaders note, the Marathas, who are the landed rural elite, are at odds with the resurgent, upwardly-mobile OBCs and Dalits on issues like control over local power structures and reservation. 

The BJP, seen as a party of the OBCs, is also undergoing a transition by recruiting established Maratha families. As an OBC leader formerly with the NCP stated, while it is developing a pan-caste constituency, the NCP will have to strike a balance between its Maratha loyalists and fresh Dalits and OBC recruits.